Expect the Unexpected....

"Trouble at the Maitlands"

starring:

Xtine as "Inspector X"

Tess as "Mr. Dino"

Daniel as "Daniella the Belle of Berlin"

Cristy as...herself

Daniella: The Belle of Berlin

Some things just don't happen as you think they might....

Christine used to have a fantastic apartment downtown with different coloured walls in each room. A group of us always thought we should carefully plan out some ideas and shoot them there because it's an older place with tons of character!

Suddenly we got the message that Christine was going to be moving. Since they were trying to downsize to help facilitate the move, the girls were invited to go through some clothes and the gents were invited along for brunch. Since it was the last possible chance, we all decided we should perhaps have the camera on-hand...just in case....

And so...you might be asking yourself what's going on with the dude in the dress on the right? Well...needless to say...Daniel is a very good sport! The women in the group thought it would be funny to put him in the dress that Christine just wasn't feeling any more (truth be told I thought it was pretty funny too, of course!).

Someone else is going to have to explain the whole "Mr. Dino" thing (Tess' name for the day). She wound up in the costume from Christine's 70's party. There must have been a label somewhere because Marco was Mr. Dino at that party....

Mr. Dino

Christine whipped up a great spy costume with a mask and little camera (and moustache!) and Cristy jumped into a dress that...I could imagine her in while conducting her usual daily business.

I brought my Westcott umbrella and stand with me (available as a kit - Amazon appears to be sold out of them, so check your local photo store. Great value for money!). Honestly, they didn't turn into the series of images I saw in my mind. I think what I was after was a softbox (which I've been very excited about since I got one for Christmas!), although I know from my experiences as a musician that things don't always turn out the way you had initially imagined them. Perhaps that's part of the excitement of it all though - it's a process to take something you've imagined and bring it into the physical world. You just never know exactly what will come of it and how it might change in the process!

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I found the one umbrella sometimes a little tricky to control without awkward shadows showing up. I had it set up in front of the subject 45 degrees camera left from above. I also had a bare speedlight 90 degrees to the right for some - especially to illuminate the umbrella that "Daniella's" holding on the couch. That sometimes really contributed to unwanted shadows, but did its job. Next time perhaps with a snoot!

For more on radio triggers and other gear see this post or this one including more on the (super cool!) Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 that I was mostly using here.

And now for the rest of our zany shenanigans together:

Mr. Dino Comes Home - Click for larger image

Click the image to see it larger

Inspector X prevails - click the image to see it larger

To all a fun-filled and creative weekend....